The Letter F

Fame

Fame sucks. It's hard to imagine wanting something so bad that I'd willingly lay myself open to the carnivorous ramora that attach themselves to the famous. Then again, I have no intention of going into the typical glamor fields that'd make me famous: Entertainment, Politics, Crime. I never want to
hear my name emerging from Joan Rivers' mouth. Even at less prominant levels - within your industry or community, relative fame changes the way people react to and interact with you.

Father

Mine has had e-mail longer than I have, but I beat him to the web ... barely.

More: Bruce P. Hayden

Feedback

My web pages garner a lot of mail and feedback, ranging from requests for links to 'hallelujahs!', from the 'requests' for me to do someone's homework for them to random come-ons.

More: Feedback

Films and Flicks and Fluttering Images

I love going to the movies. I love the dimming lights, the previews, the silly pre-movie animations, the opening swell of music, and the most minor of credits. I love the collective intake of breath at a pivotal moment, and I love the way a good actor can make you forget you've slunk so low in your seat that your butt is almost ready to fall off to sleep. I miss reviewing movies, and I miss the Academy of Music in Northampton and the carpetted theater in Raleigh.

More: Movies

Fish

I have had many fish over the course of my lifetime - all kinds of goldfish -comets, ryukin, orandas, mores, fantails, non-goldies, redcaps, goldfish plain and fancy - I spent my summers in college trying to map which baby goldfish came from which parents. Not always easy! I currently have five fish: two bully comets, one delicate blonde goldfish, one ryukin-fantail mix, and a fantail.

More: Fish! Fish! Fish!

Flurries

Not. Good. Enough. I demand real snow storms with accumulating inches! If there isn't enough snow to make shovelling my walk worthwhile, it isn't snow. Bah.

Frankie and Johnny

This is my favorite song of all time. It's a murder ballad that is also a historical record of the attitudes and culture of all sorts of groups of people throughout the past century, plus. And it's fun to sing. I think I've heard over 30 different versions, and those are just the ones that have been put on
tape and made easily accessible. I'm still looking for a physical copy of the one where Frankie shoots Johnny "just right of his thigh".

Franklin, Aretha

The woman can sing something fierce.

Freberg, Stan

If I had a theme song it would be, "Everybody Wants to be an Art Director." Freberg is one of those underappreciated modern American geniuses - hysterically funny and remarkably clever, Freberg managed to raise the levels of both advertising and humor, skewering everything and everyone. He's voiced countless cartoons, created some of the best advertising around, and created some of the radio comedy ever.

Frogs

Sometimes when I look up out of the corner of my eye, the small, fabulously expensive windup frog that loiters on top of my monitor looks just like a head poking around my office door.

TV's Frank

I miss him!